Virginia Has Plenty To Gain After Loss

RALEIGH, N.C. — The streak finally ended. But what else does Virginia's 29-24 loss Saturday night at N.C. State mean?

The Cavaliers (7-2, 4-1 ACC) still lead Virginia Tech (6-2, 3-1) atop the Coastal Division. They will play for the ACC championship if they win out, beating Wake Forest at home, Miami on the road and the Hokies in the Nov. 24 regular-season finale in Charlottesville. They're guaranteed a bowl bid that more wins will only improve.

But that's not the main motivation driving U.Va. to bounce back from its first loss in seven weeks.

"That's such a crazy deal and there's so many things that can happen, you really can't worry about anyone but yourself," Cavs senior defensive end Chris Long said.

And as Saturday night vividly illustrated, Virginia has enough in-house concerns to keep it busy.

The Cavs gave up 431 yards of offense, including 347 through the air to Wolfpack quarterback Daniel Evans, a player benched earlier in the season because of poor performance. Offensive struggles - including an interception on U.Va.'s first series that led to an N.C. State touchdown - saw to it that the Cavs played from behind for most of the night. And a crucial special-teams penalty kept Virginia from coming up with a huge fumble recovery on a kickoff after it took its only lead of the game in the fourth quarter.

"We could've coached better," U.Va. coach Al Groh said. "We could've played special teams better. We could've played offense better. We could have played defense better. But we didn't. ... If there's any finger-pointing - and there ought to be a lot - it ought to be each one of us pointing our finger at ourselves and saying, 'If I had done better, then maybe the result would have been different.' "

But the reality was the Cavs' first loss since a season-opening 23-3 drubbing at Wyoming. U.Va. had a chance for its first 5-0 ACC start in school history, but the crunch-time heroics that had lifted the Cavs to three straight fourth-quarter victories dissipated behind starting quarterback Jameel Sewell's cramps and a Wolfpack pass rush that refused to give backup Peter Lalich time to settle in.

The Cavs put themselves in the position to need another last-ditch drive with mistakes and poor execution. Sewell's two interceptions took some of the luster off his career-high 260 passing yards, and Virginia failed all night to stop Evans and sophomore wideout Donald Bowens, who racked up 202 yards and two of Evans' three TD passes on 11 catches.

"There's no excuse for us giving up (29) points. That's just inexcusable," Long said. " ... For about 24 hours here, we'll be a little upset with ourselves, and then we'll watch the tape and we'll have to move forward. You have to have a short memory."

And a grasp of the goals that are still well within reach, especially if the Cavs can rebound against defending ACC champion Wake, which has won six straight games.

"We're not demoralized," Groh said Sunday. "(We'll) put this game behind us (and) focus on what it's gonna take to beat one of the three best teams on our schedule."